castlevaniafandomcom-20200223-history
Brauner
is the main antagonist in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. In his past life, he was an artist prior to his vampirism. He is the one who created the many portraits which the player must travel through to get to different areas. Background An elder vampire with a resemblance to Count Orlok, Brauner recreated Dracula's Castle using the souls of the dead from World War II in order to destroy humanity. Unlike most other vampires in the series, he has no loyalty to Dracula due to his repeated failures in the past. Brauner disdains humanity because his two real daughters were killed 30 years ago, during World War I, and he has deluded the vampiric Stella and Loretta (and possibly himself as well) into believing that they are his daughters. After the player defeats him in battle, Death comes in and finishes him off, saying his presence is what kept Dracula sealed. Appearances ''Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Brauner is the second-to-last boss encountered in the game, save for optional bosses. He usually starts the battle by painting two giant blood trails on the screen that will damage the player upon contact, but which can be destroyed by an attack or a spell. He can perform three different trails, each of which amusingly, represents a Roman numeral: *An inverted V. *An inverted II. *An X. He then attacks the player by throwing paint-like blood at Jonathan and Charlotte, before summoning monsters from a painting (all monsters can be avoided or attacked). Depending on the color of the painting, the monsters and their effects will be different: *'Green': Summons two giant spinning monsters. Inflicts Poison upon contact. *'Gray': Summons two giant ghosts, one on the ground and another on the ceiling, that will travel to the edge of the screen. Inflicts a Curse upon contact. *'Blue': Several heads start flying in the heroes' direction. Inflicts Petrification upon contact. Brauner can also teleport inside his portrait and fly around, damaging the player if he or she touches it. poisonpainting.jpg|Poison painting cursepainting.png|Curse painting petrificationpainting.png|Petrification painting If the player opts to fight Stella and Loretta instead of using Sanctuary on them, Brauner interferes with Jonathan's attempt at finishing them off and spirits them away alongside himself while begging him to have mercy on them, also inferring when Charlotte points out that they're not actually blood related that their familial ties actually lie in their souls, not merely their blood. ''Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Brauner appears in the game as the boss of the fourth chapter. His attacks are same as those in ''Portrait of Ruin. Item Data Trivia (c. 1960) ]] *Brauner is based on real life painter Victor Brauner, a surrealist artist that often painted portraits that included signs and symbols based from a diverse range of sources, such as religion and mysticism. Eyes had been a reoccurring theme in much of his early works; in doing so, he gained a reputation of seer among the Surrealists community, also believing himself to be one. After an incident where he lost the sight of his left eye, his work became more introspective and symbols such as a prophetic cyclops eye became common. Likewise, one of the vampire Brauner's attacks in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin involves summoning Cyclops' heads, and the big painting on the canvas in his studio has many eyes, among other macabre imagery. *Even though Brauner is a vampire who seeks humanity's destruction and uses the souls of those who died in World War II to revive Dracula's Castle, he does not seek to revive (nor does he intend to serve) Dracula, who he keeps under a seal, instead taking the castle's power and army for himself. The reason Brauner does not revive Dracula is because of his constant failures to destroy humanity. Brauner is one of a handful of monsters/vampires who do not serve Dracula (such as the Frozen Half and the Time Reaper) and is opposed to Dracula's status as Dark Lord (similar to Galamoth). **Ironically, Dracula is partially responsible for the deaths of Brauner's two daughters (which fueled Brauner's hatred for humanity), as Dracula's niece, Elizabeth Bartley, had the Crown Prince of Austria assassinated, leading Europe into the chaos of World War I (which took the lives of Brauner's two daughters) in order to revive her uncle, only for both to be defeated by John Morris and Eric Lecarde (the same man Brauner would later murder). Brauner, however, apparently held humanity responsible for the war (it is unknown if he was aware of Bartley's role in starting the war or not) that led to the deaths of his beloved daughters. ***In addition, both Brauner and Dracula became vampires for the exact same reason: Both did so due to sadness over the loss of loved ones (as Mathias Cronqvist became Dracula due to the death of Elisabetha, while Brauner became a vampire thanks to his daughters' deaths during World War I), and both even developed genocidal views against humanity for similar reasons (although in Brauner's case, it was the same reason he became a vampire, while with Dracula, it was the death of his second wife Lisa at the hands of humans that resulted in his genocidal actions against humanity). **Despite being enemies, both Brauner and Eric Lecarde have lost loved ones due to the actions of Elizabeth Bartley. She turned Eric's lover Gwendolyn into a vampire who Eric was forced to destroy, and started the war which took the lives of Brauner's daughters (whose souls Brauner believed had been reincarnated into Eric's two daughters, Stella and Loretta). *Brauner's overall design seems to be based on both Count Orlok, the main antagonist of the 1922 film Nosferatu, and Count Olrox from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. While in fact Olrox was primarily inspired by the film's character, Brauner only wears a purple-colored Victorian apparel similar to Olrox's; the rest of his physical features (face, pointy ears and thin hands with long nails) along with the design of his suit (which now portrays a larger collar) are more reminiscent to those of Count Orlok. **These similarities are highlighted in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, as defeating Brauner while playing as either Soma Cruz or Alucard sometimes has the Olrox's Suit appear as an enemy drop. ***The similarities were also given a nod in Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls, where after Lucy alludes to Brauner sealing Dracula's Castle in a painting to take advantage of its magic, Genya Arikado mentions he was familiar with Olrox, yet not Brauner. **Coincidentally, both Brauner and Olrox were vampires who restored Dracula's Castle without actually serving Dracula, usurped his authority, and even ended up killed by Death with the unwitting aid by a vampire hunter. *His internal files give names to his three invocations. This is actually the Japanese phonetic pronunciation of the damage type they inflict: **"Doku" (毒, poison) for the green monster. **"Noroi" (呪い, curse) for the gray one. **"Sekika" (石化, petrification) for blues heads. *Brauner's method of attack when he enters a painting and swoops down on the player is reminiscent of the Captain, a miniboss from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. *Brauner is the first person to think of separating Dracula from his castle as a way of subduing him, with Genya Arikado and Julius Belmont doing something similar later on during the Demon Castle War, as Arikado commented on. See also *Loretta Lecarde *Olrox *Stella Lecarde de:Brauner Category:Antagonists Category:Deceased Characters Category:Flying Bosses Category:Male Characters Category:Vampire Masters Category:Vampires Category:Harmony of Despair Bosses Category:Portrait of Ruin Bosses Category:Portrait of Ruin Characters